How many hoary bats must die for wind energy?
Honolulu Star-Advertiser | September 10, 2015 | www.staradvertiser.com
Honolulu Star-Advertiser | September 10, 2015 | www.staradvertiser.com
Estimates are just that – educated guesses, really – but the SunEdison Inc. projection of its bat kills seems so far off it should give decisionmakers pause. The permission for SunEdison’s two wind farms on Maui was that just 14 of the newly crowned official state land mammal, the endangered Hawaiian hoary bat, would be killed over the 20-year life of the installation. With three bat deaths in only the first three years, the company has upped its requested limit to 80. And, if U.S. Division of Forestry and Wildlife approves the request, the allowable kills of the state bird, the nene, will go from 30 to 48. That’s the not-so-green cost of going green.
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2015/09/11/how-many-hoary-bats-must-die-for-wind-energy/